Carjacked Delaware Grandmother, 89, Locked in Trunk for Two Days by Teenage Thugs

An 89-year-old Delaware woman was carjacked by two teenage girls and locked in her own car boot for two days before being dumped at a cemetery.

Police had been looking for Margaret Smith after relatives reported the pensioner missing on 19 March.

Smith, 89, was found two days later, crawling around on her hands and knees among the graves in a cemetery east of Seaford in Sussex County.

Driving from her home in Slaughter Neck Road, two girls approached Smith when she arrived at the Chicken Man convenience store and asked for a ride.

The elderly woman agreed but when they arrived at the address they gave Smith, the girls took her car keys and, after a struggle, forced her into the car boot.

"They opened the door and shoved me in the trunk and locked it," the victim told WPVI -TV. "I banged and banged and banged."

The pensioner remained in the trunk throughout the two-day ordeal. The two teenagers, Junia McDonald, 14, and Jackeline H. Perez, 15, then stole $500 (£328), from Smith's coat pocket.

The girls were joined by two boys, Rondaiges Harper and Phillip Brewer, both 17. Police said the four drove the stolen car to the Days Inn in Seaford, where they rented a room for the night.

They left Smith in the trunk of her car in near-freezing temperatures and without food or water.

Relatives became anxious at the disappearance of Smith, who requires medication, and alerted police.

By chance, state troopers found the 89-year-old in a dazed state, wandering around the cemetery. She was taken to Nanticoke Memorial Hospital, where she was treated for exposure.

"She must have been a very strong woman to have endured being in a trunk for two days," trooper Gary Fournier told delawareonline.com.

In random checks, police spotted Smith's car being driven around in nearby Bridgeville and ran a licence check.

Delaware State Police have now charged the teenagers with robbery, carjacking, kidnapping, conspiracy and receiving stolen property.